Dotty Magazine Issue Five | Page 55

A chat and a cuppa with. . . BANDEAU D’AMOUR BANDEAU D’AMOUR Bandeau d’Amour BY AMY SWANN Inspired by the countryside, wild flowers and all things vintage, Amy Swann is the master of seriously stunning floral wedding cakes. Amy is expanding her pretty empire, to create bespoke handmade flowers for beautiful, headpieces, designed for weddings and special events. www.dottyvintageweddings.co.uk The idea for my new range of floral headpieces and garlands evolved very organically out of my love for sculpting flowers for my cakes. I wanted to experiment with another medium that would result in the same effect but would be everlasting as a way of expanding the business. I use my cake designs and flowers that inspire me as a starting point. Very much like my cakes, I follow a theme or a mood to develop an idea through sourcing images and sketching ideas. I love the challenge of sculpting beautiful flowers by looking at interesting textures and playing with the concept of creating blooms that would not usually last once picked, or flowers that may be out of season at the time. I sculpt each flower by hand with a non-edible medium which results in a very realistic waxy and translucent finish much like a real petal. 55 I then tint or softly colour each piece and bind together onto a garland or hair piece. I very much enjoy the concept of creating heirloom pieces to treasure forever which is very different to designing and making cakes made just for one day. My hope is that the two pieces compliment each other as special one off pieces. Andrea Pennington was responsible for these stunning images that were taken on location in the beautiful Cornish countryside. This will be an on-going collaboration for forthcoming work. I am currently working on a winter collection which I hope to release late Autumn.” Amy’s website will be launched later this year, however, in the meantime her work can be found on her Facebook page: /pages/Bandeau-dAmour-by-AmySwann/302287523287511 Love Vintage. Love Weddings.